Developments in the field of electronics have led to demands in many fields for rapidity, and the field of silver halide photographic processing is no exception.
In particular, the necessity for rapid processing has increased more and more with respect to sheet-type photographic materials such as photographic materials for graphic arts, photographic materials for X-rays, photographic materials for scanners and photographic materials for CRT image recording.
The faster that processing becomes, the smaller the tank capacity that is required for processing a photographic material per unit of area per unit of time. Namely, it provides the advantage of minimizing the size of the automatic developing apparatus. Rapid processing is therefore important.
However, rapid processing aggravates the problem of coloration remaining in a silver halide photographic material (so-called residual coloration) caused by incomplete elution during processing of a sensitizing dye contained in the photographic material.
Previously, sensitizing dyes having hydrophilic substituents such as a sulfamoyl group and a carbamoyl group have been studied to reduce the residual coloration (for example, JP-A-1-147451 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), JP-A-61-294429, JP-B-45-32749 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication"), JP-A-61-77843, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,282,933 and 5,091,298, and European Patents 467,370A1 and 472,004A1). However, an enhanced hydrophilic property generally results in lowered absorbability, so that it is difficult to obtain satisfactory sensitivity. Addition of the sensitizing dyes in an increased amount to obtain sufficient sensitivity causes unsatisfactory residual coloration. It is also observed that the sensitizing dyes described in European Patents 446,845A2 and 451,816A1 have the effect of reducing residual coloration. However, these dyes offer insufficient compatibility between reduced residual coloration and satisfactory sensitivity as described above.